42. Travel on
official business
42.1 Employees may be required to travel on official
business as part of their normal duties.
42.2 Official travel should be undertaken in
accordance with the Clerk’s Instructions and relevant departmental guidelines.
42.3 Where possible, travel on official business should
be arranged between 7.30am and 7.30pm Monday to Friday. Travel during these
times may be counted as time on duty for the purposes of flextime.
42.4 Where travel outside these times is essential
and/or unavoidable in order to meet work demands, a section head or program
manager will grant an employee a period of paid time off in lieu (TOIL) at
single time. The arrangements applying to the banking of, and access to, such
TOIL credits will be as outlined in clauses 33.10 to 33.12.
Class of travel
42.5 Employees are entitled to economy class air
travel where required to travel on official business within Australia.
42.6 Employees will be entitled to travel business
class within Australia if the actual continuous flight time (excluding
connecting flights) is in excess of three hours, and the employee is
expected to perform duty immediately following the completion of the flight.
42.7 Where the abovementioned flight is in conjunction
with a connecting flight, and the additional cost to the department to fly an
employee business class on the connecting flight would be no more than 10%
greater than the economy class airfare, the employee may fly business class for
the connecting flight.
42.8 An employee required to travel overseas on
official business will be entitled to business class travel. Where business
class travel is not offered, the employee will travel economy class.
Travelling expenses
42.9 Subject to clause 42.2, an employee required to travel
within Australia on official business, necessitating absence from Canberra
overnight, will be provided with a corporate credit card to meet reasonable
accommodation, meal and incidental expenses, or will be fully reimbursed for
reasonable expenses incurred upon return.
42.10 Subject to clause 42.2, an employee required to
travel overseas on official business will be provided with a corporate credit
card to meet reasonable accommodation, meal and incidental expenses (e.g.
airport taxes, telephone calls to maintain contact with family) or will be
fully reimbursed for expenses incurred upon return. Advances may be made on a
case by case basis having regard to issues such as accepted processes for the
payment of accounts in the country being visited and projected expenses where
payment by credit card is not an option.
43. Child
care/family care expenses
43.1 Where an employee is required to work additional
hours, to travel on official business, at short notice, or is recalled to duty
from leave, the Clerk may approve the reimbursement of reasonable expenses
incurred for the care of a household family member (e.g. child or elderly
parent) where:
(a) the employee is given less than 24 hours’
notice of the requirement to work, travel or be recalled to duty; and
(b) there is no form of suitable unpaid care available
to the employee; and
(c) the manager is informed immediately that the
requirement to work or travel may give rise to a claim under this clause, so
that alternative work arrangements can be considered.
44. Relocation
expenses
44.1 Subject to clause 44.2, an employee recruited
from interstate or overseas and needing to relocate will do so at his or her
own expense. This applies to employees on promotion, transfer, movement and
engagement.
44.2 Where it is considered that relocation assistance
should be provided to ensure that the preferred person accepts the offer of
employment, the Clerk may approve reimbursement of costs up to $3,000.
45. Loss or
damage
45.1 The Clerk may approve reimbursement to an
employee for loss or damage to clothing or personal effects which occurs as a
direct consequence of the performance of his or her duties at work. Employees
are to report any such loss or damage, as soon as practicable after the
occurrence, to their immediate supervisor.
46. Notice of
resignation or retirement
46.1 Where possible, employees should provide written
notice of resignation or retirement to their program manager in accordance with
the following periods:
(a)
Parliamentary Executive levels four weeks
(b)
APS 1/2 to 6 levels two weeks.
46.2 A resignation may not take effect on a public
holiday or closedown day.
47. Payment on
death
47.1 Where an employee dies, or is presumed to have
died, the Clerk will make a payment to the employee’s legally authorised
representative of the amount to which the employee would have been entitled on
resignation or retirement.
48. Introduction of paid parking
48.1 If a system of paid parking is introduced in the
vicinity of Parliament House such that the provision to an employee of free
parking is a fringe benefit for the purposes of Fringe Benefits Tax
Assessment Act 1986, the department will pay any fringe benefits tax that
arises as a result of the provision of that parking to the employee.